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Friday, 31 May 2013

MoneySupermarket Inspect-A-Gadget Tablet Review.

Even though
the weather still might disagree some days summer is fast approaching. With summer soon dawning on us along with the
prospect of holidays for many people, MoneySupermarket.com have been considering
popular travel gadgets for entertaining yourself and your loved ones on
holiday. MoneySupermarket.com have
realised that popular travel gadgets such as e-readers, portable DVD players
and tablets often have a hefty price tag attached to them and as such they are
looking for affordable alternatives. With
an aim to find out if cheaper travel gadgets can live up to their more
expensive counterparts MoneySupermarket.com have devised a challenge called
Inspect-A-Gadget. For their
Inspect-A-Gadget challenge, MoneySupermarket.com have enlisted the help of a
number of bloggers to review cheaper travel gadgets to enable them to collate a
list of the top travel gadgets for 2013 in time for the summer holidays. With each blogger being asked to review one
of the current markets most inexpensive, yet effective travel gadgets from a
selection of the top 5 most packed holiday tech gadgets, they will be able to
give readers the run down on cheaper alternatives to expensive travel gadgets
and a choice of affordable travel gadgets all of which will be under £50 and
tried and tested by a host of different bloggers.

As we are
a family who love gadgets I could not resist the offer of taking part in the MoneySupermarket.com Inspect-A-Gadget challenge. I also
thought the challenge sounded exciting and being a family with a limited budget
I was keen on seeing whether there really are gadgets on the market that are
within our price range that are worth the money and work well.

For the
Inspect-A-Gadget challenge I was given the choice of 5 travel gadgets, all
under £50 –

* Philips Esee
HD CAM295BL Camcorder

* Kobo Mini
eReader

* Essentials
C7PDVD12 Portable DVD Player

* 7 inch LélikTec®
Android Tablet

* SONY
Walkman NWZB173 4GB MP3 Player

I was very
tempted by the portable DVD player for entertaining Bug on the long trips to
see his family on Lee’s side over 200 miles away and for long journeys in the
car on our little holidays and other adventures away from home. In the end I opted for the Android Tablet as I
felt it met the needs of our family the best plus I have been lusting after a
tablet for ages, being especially envious of my mum who has a snazzy iPad. I thought the tablet would get a through
testing from all members of our household with all of us testing out the
various functions. I hoped it would be
perfect for us all in different ways; Lee loves YouTube and watching shows
online via sites such as BBC iPlayer, I use social media a lot and being able
to blog and write and even though he is still young Bug loves playing
children-friendly games and watching cartoon shows.

The 7 inch
touch screen Allwinner (LélikTec®) A13 Android Tablet is available on Amazon for under £40 and comes in 6 different colours; red, white, black, blue, pink and
purple. I was very tempted to get either
the pink or purple but being kind I put my girly taste to one side and I decided
to opt for a colour I thought the men in my life would appreciate too so I got
the blue instead. Being a tad late to
the game I opted for the express delivery from Amazon for £8.99 so that it
would come in time for me to have a play and thoroughly test it. Thankfully the tablet arrived exactly when it
should have, with quick efficient service and even a text or two to keep
informed of the progress of the delivery of the family’s new toy.

The tablet
arrived in a small box with a funky design; inside the box was all I needed for
using the tablet –

* 7 inch
touch screen android tablet

* stylus

* charger

* micro usb
to usb cable

* micro usb
to usb adapter cable

* instructions

The instructions
tell you the basics of how to operate the tablet (even though it is very easy
to use without the instructions especially if you have used an Android device
before) but the writing it quite small and I could not see the little icons
very clearly, this however was not an issue for me as I could operate the
device without needing to refer to the instructions as would in my opinion most
people. I am not sure why there are two
cables and what purpose the micro usb to usb adapter cable serves but if I ever
need it at least it is there.

The tablet
is a good size at 7 inches and is lightweight, weighing approximately 300 grams. It looks and feels of decent quality, not
appearing cheap or tatty. Personally I think
it looks fairly stylish and I love the blue colour of the shiny plastic casing. Even though the tablet does not cost a lot I am
going to order a screen protector and a case to protect the tablet as I think
the screen and plastic casing will scratch easily and I wish I had ordered a
case and screen protector when I ordered the tablet.

Some of
the technical specifications of the tablet include –

*1 GHz
processor speed

*512MB RAM
size

* 4GB hard
drive

*Android
4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system

The tablet
arrived with half a battery of charge which I was pleased with as I could have a
play straight away. I have not used a
tablet before really apart from a quick dabble on my mum’s iPad however as I have
an Android smartphone I immediately felt comfortable and familiar using the
tablet.

The touch
screen response is swift and smooth and the tablet is easy to navigate.The screen quality and picture is adequate,
clear and good for the price of the tablet.

It is
amazingly easy to use and straightforward to set up. The tablet is WiFi enabled and within seconds
of inputting our WiFi password I was connected to the internet and the WiFi
connection has been reliable. The tablet
is also enabled to allow connection via 3G, personally though as with my phone I
avoid connecting via 3G due to data charges that mount up surprisingly fast. I have found it easy to connect to different
WiFi connections when out and about which I think is a bonus for when using the
tablet away on holiday where you can connect to WiFi provided by hotels, public
WiFi spots and if with BT their WiFi hotspots.

The tablet
comes pre-loaded with a few apps including ‘Angry Birds’. It also comes with Google Play Store where
you can download additional apps as well as games, movies, music, books and
magazines. As with other Android devices
you simply login in to the Play Store and download whatever you desire. There are lots of free apps available and
lots of free child friendly games for Bug to enjoy. I have downloaded and connected to a number
of apps including popular ones such as Facebook and Twitter allowing me to stay
connected at all times. Lee has also commanded
a portion of the tablet with YouTube, iPlayer and 4OD to name but a few apps he
has downloaded. All apps work well on
the tablet and easy handles apps when used solely. The tablet also comes loaded with web
browsers ready for connecting to the internet, with websites loading fairly
quickly and in ample time for my needs.
The only thing I have noticed is if multiple windows are open the tablet
does slow down.

According to the specifications the battery life is approximately 3 hours, with heavy use I personally do not think it would last quite that long as the charge does seem to drain quickly from the battery. Apart from when Lee is watching a programme on the tablet the poor battery life does not bother me and for mine and Bug’s usage the battery life is more than adequate especially for Bug who I would not want to be using it for long periods of time anyway. The charger is a little awkward and weirdly the power adapter does not plug into the tablet all the way, it sticks out with a bit of metal connector exposed. I have also noticed with the awkward charging connection that even went plugged into the hole it is not always charging so I have to gently fiddle with it until I see the charging symbol on the battery icon.

The tablet has an inbuilt front facing camera which is of poor resolution with low megapixels. Even though it is not the highest quality camera and I will not be ditching my trusty Sony Cybershot camera for it Bug has had fun taking photos and it is easy and entertaining for him to take his own photographs.

The tablet does not come with a huge hard drive which is not surprising with the small price tag compared to high end tablets so a big plus point is that it comes with a micro SD memory card slot providing the option of additional storage space for large files, songs, photos and videos.

The sound
quality is decent on the tablet and there is a headphone slot for listening to
videos and music via headphones.

Lee has
enjoyed using the tablet to connect to YouTube and for watching programmes on
TV catch up sites. He was particularly
grateful to have the tablet to watch The Apprentice on BBC iPlayer after
missing the latest episode working overtime and having a terrible fiancée who
forgot to record it (oopppss! Bad, bad fiancée).

The tablet
does everything I need to do and even though it is a times a tad slower loading
and connecting than my smartphone it is good to be able to have a bigger screen
to view and connect on. It is a great
portable device that won’t break the bank that allows me to stay connected, use
a variety of social media and stay on top of my emails and blog.

Bug is a
little techno freak, he loves gadgets and phones. He loves playing on a few child friendly
games on my smartphone and on a number of occasions I have found he has
unlocked my phone, gone through a number of windows to find one of his apps, opened
it and started playing all by himself. Even
though I do not mind him playing on my phone I was looking forward to him being
able to play his games on a tablet, having a bigger screen to play on and being
able to watch a few of his favourite cartoons and shows on too. As soon as Bug saw the tablet he was intrigued
and when we got to play a few of his favourite games he kept repeating ‘wow’
with a big smile on his cheeky little face.
The tablet is a great size for Bug; it is great that it is a bigger
screen than my phone without being too big for him to handle and hold. Another benefit of him using the tablet over
my phone is that I do not have to worry about him texting or calling anyone
which he has done a few times before when playing on my phone.

As well as
being very happy playing apps and games on the tablet Bug has also been over
the moon at being able to watch some of his favourite cBeebies shows. For some reason it won’t play clips from the cBeebies
website, coming up with an error message but fortunately it does play cBeebies
shows via BBC iPlayer. I plan on getting
Lee to investigate why it won’t play shows from the cBeebies site as it may
just be a case of not having the correct media player but I am not sure.

A big
bonus of it being a cheap tablet is I do not have to worry too much about Bug
accidentally breaking it; I am not worried about Bug using it compared to when
we are over at Mamgu’s house where I make sure I keep Bug well away from her
iPad as I could not afford to replace it if he accidentally broke it.

I am more
than pleased with this tablet so far, even though I love it for my own needs
and think it is great that Lee is enjoying using it to, the best thing for me
is that Bug gets to enjoy a little bit of technology with a tablet that I think
is great for children. Bug is delighted
he gets to play with a proper ‘computer’ compared to his toy ones (which are
great in their own way), looking very pleased with himself that he is a big boy
and getting to play with what mummy and daddy use. I love that it keeps Bug entertained and even
though we are huge fans of playing outside and not getting spellbound by
technology and sitting in front of screens all day I think it is good for him
to get used to technology in a small way, playing and learning with it
especially considering the technological era we live in.

I think
this tablet is perfect for taking on holiday; allowing you to keep in touch
with your nearest and dearest when away on holiday via social media and skype, check
your emails and social networks and be entertained via apps, games and
videos. Its small, compact size is
perfect for slipping in hand luggage when going on holiday and the ease of use
and portability makes it a great little travel gadget with a low price tag.

The tablet
is a great way to keep children entertained and a much more affordable option
compared to other tablets on the market.
It may not be as snazzy, fast and have as much storage as high end
devices but for the price it is a great piece of kit and allows you to do so
much. For the price I think you get a
very decent tablet and it is what it is, an affordable tablet that is a decent all-rounder
and a great alternative to expensive tablets especially if you have a tight
budget. I would recommend this tablet
and think it is particularly good for children of all ages. It has a bargain price tag and is a perfect
entry level tablet. I love it and look
forward to using it on lots in the future and I think it will be especially
useful for entertaining Bug on adventures away from home where long car
journeys are undertaken and perfect for when we travel to visit Lee’s family.

* I
received payment for the tablet from MoneySupermarket.com in return for an
honest review. This post also forms my
entry into the Inspect-A-Gadget competition where 1 lucky blogger from the
Inspect-A-Gadget challenge will win a fabulous prize of £1000 to put towards
their summer holiday *